All convicted for involvement in December riots might be freed-Lukashenko

"We don’t need them there. They [the West] does not them any longer either. They are no opposition, they are bandits," he said

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MINSK, October 7 (Itar-Tass) —— Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday he did not rule out that all those who were arrested for taking part in protest rallies after the December 19, 2010 presidential elections would be set free.

“There are only two or three persons [in prison], but they don’t want to be released, they opt to stay in prison, to be ‘heroes’,” Lukashenko told a news conference for Russian media.

In his words, all they have to do to be freed is to sign an appeal. “We don’t need them there. They [the West] does not them any longer either. They are no opposition, they are bandits,” he said.

Dwelling on the West’s demands to release these people, Lukashenko said it was unpromising. “Why should they set conditions? Let us live by ourselves, we create no problems for you. Why calling these people political prisoners? They are prisoners convicted under a certain article,” he stressed and added that there are no “political” articles in the national criminal code.

As of now, former candidates for presidency Nikolai Statkevich and Andrei Sannikov, and several opposition members more are kept in custody.